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Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 (VS 2003), formerly codenamed Everett,
doesn't introduce as much new functionality as the original Visual Studio
.NET, also known as VS 2002. However, according to Microsoft at least, the
learning curve for the new VS 2003 is much quicker. Released in April,
Microsoft's latest integrated development environment (IDE) brings lots of
cool new features to the developer's table, while at the same time enabling
easy migration of existing applications.

Most important to developers who are considering the upgrade, VS 2003 offers
new Java integration, extensive built-in mobile development, and support for
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1. The new IDE also adds a number of productivity
enhancements that promise faster development, better application monitoring, and
easier database connectivity, for instance. Meanwhile, Microsoft is separately
releasing a series of PowerToys utilities that add more new capabilities to VS
2003. Here are the details on both VS 2003's best new features and the
PowerToys.

New Features

VS 2003 includes plenty of new features. The following sections describe what
I think are the best ones.

.NET 1.1 Support

If you want to build applications supporting Microsoft's new .NET
Framework 1.1, VS 2003 appears to be an absolute must. According to Microsoft,
NET 1.1 provides increased scalability with support for up to 32 processors,
along with improvements such as better mobile and database support. It also
supports IPv6 and, for the ASP.NET platform only, tighter permissions lockdown
through code access security.

Side-by-Side Development

For easier migration to the new development environment, you can run VS 2003
and .NET 1.1 side by side with VS 2002 and .NET 1.0.

This new capability is enabled by
side-by-side execution,
an enhancement in version 1.1 that permits execution of multiple versions of
applications or components on the same computer.

However, successful side-by-side development assumes you have adequate disk
space to run both frameworks and both IDEs. VS 2003 alone requires 900MB of
available disk space on the system drive and 3.3GB of available space on the
installation drive.

VS 2003 also includes a setting that lets you compile for either .NET 1.1 or
.NET 1.0. Be careful, however, not to compile code to version 1.0 that requires
brand-new capabilities in version 1.1.

You should also be aware that VS 2003 uses different file extensions than VB
2002. If you open a project already started in VS 2002, a pop-up appears
informing you that the 2002 project is about to be converted to VS 2003
format.

Better Database Support

Quicker Development

Also in VS 2003, Microsoft introduces enhancements to both code completion
and IntelliSense. IntelliSense, a design-time assistant, now appears in the
immediate window, for easier access.

Here's another time-saver that Microsoft has been demonstrating to
developers and journalists. If you type Try at the beginning and end of the
handling block, VS automatically inserts the stub code for the rest of the
block.

Web Services

Other new tools in VS 2003 support the latest Web services standards,
including WS-Security, WS-Routing, WS-Attachments, and Direct Internet Messaging
(DIME).

Code Obfuscation

Also new in VS 2003 is a built-in utility for source code obfuscation.

In addition, VS developers can now download Microsoft's Enterprise
Implementation Framework (EIF), a tool that the company promises lets you
quickly add runtime monitoring to your applications.

The source code obfuscation tool, PreEmptive Dotfuscator Community Edition,
is the "lite" version of a product from PreEmptive Solutions, a
Microsoft ISV partner based in Cleveland. Microsoft says it included the tool to
protect the intellectual property of programmers who distribute VS 2003 code, as
well as to help developers reduce the size and improve the performance of mobile
and other .NET applications. The tool is designed to render Microsoft
Intermediate Language (MSIL), which is said to be very difficult, if not
impossible, to reverse-engineer into comprehensible source code.

Improved Upgrade Wizard

Microsoft improved the VS Upgrade Wizard, a tool for VB developers only, with
first-time support for user controls and Web classes.

The enhanced Upgrade Wizard is designed to automatically upgrade Visual Basic
6.0 projects when opened in VS 2003. The tool modifies the language for syntax
changes, while also converting VB 6.0 forms.

The wizard also notifies developers when manual changes need to be made to
code. To view the code statement, you navigate to the Task List window and
double-click on the task item.